GARDEN CITIES

Sir Ebenezer Howard- Garden Cities

Sir Ebenezer Howard- Garden Cities

Introduction

I believe that it was Howards Garden Cities that noted the birth of extensive projected modern societies, if it was not for him the modernization of houses would not have been possible. The legacy of Garden Cities and New Towns are considered to be very successful, reasonable places to live. Side by side to the vintage model, it also takes a glance at some trendy progression. In my opinion if the garden cities were not constructed United Kingdom would not have ever progressed in the world. The man behind the creation of Garden City movement Sir Howard Ebenezer was born in Fore Street in London. His father was a shopkeeper. Sir Ebenezer did not receive any particular education (www.letchworthgardencity.net). He was exposed to a rural environment at a very early age. He worked at different managerial posts learning shorthand.He then went to the United States at the age of 21 with the goal of farming. His plan did not work out of farming, so he went to Illinois to get back to his previous career as an office worker. When he arrived, he saw that the city was restoring from the after effects of the great fire of 1871. There, he saw the rapid development of the business districts and the growth of suburbs. In 1876, he returned to England and took up work in the office of parliamentary reporters (www.letchworthgardencity.net). This was the place where he saw the problems of the accommodation, labour, water supply, the outbreak of cholera and a lot of other issues. These issues were constantly troubling, so he came up with the plan of a future city and a society free of these problems. Howard started to apply his functional brain to the vision that has influenced him and by different projects and concepts, and so gave birth to his own master plan that published in 1898 by the name of “Tomorrow a Peaceful Path to Real Reform” (www.letchworthgardencity.net).

Discussion

Reporter's Review

When the book published Times reporter gave ironical review concerning the book on October 19th 1898. The reporter was very doubtful about the visions given by Howard because when Howard proposed his idea Britain was in turmoil (www.letchworthgardencity.net).The industrialization attracted people into cities where the promise of good salary, greater chances of better jobs and better living conditions were presented. Unfortunately, this promise attracted more and more people than there was the capacity to hold them: thus making the cities more congested. This created more problems; some of them were accommodation issue with higher rents, water supply and drainage problems among others. The economic conditions of the country were also very poor (www.letchworthgardencity.net). The agricultural land was deprived off its skilled workers leaving the areas abandoned where the remaining people cramped into poor quality establishments. The lack of residence for farmers and the substandard living conditions forced them to move to towns and cities. Working long hours for very low pay were also a very big ...